Opposition leaders joined the call by Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh to Prime Minister Najib Razak to set an example and declare all his assets if he was serious about tooting corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

“Bravo for the brave suggestion from Tengku Razaleigh. It is the obvious and logical step to take if Najib really wants to prove he does not possess the billions that he and Rosmah are said to have collected along the way. The stories that have gone round town about their wealth accumulation over the past 5 years are simply astounding. Najib should therefore seize this opportunity to clear his name and make the Cabinet do the same,” MP for Wangsa Maju Tan Kee Kwong told Malaysia Chronicle.

No stronger signal in the fight against corruption

Kee Kwong’s views were echoed by his colleague, Chua Jui Meng, the PKR vice president and Johor chief.

“No signal can be stronger coming from Najib, simply because he is the PM. So what he does counts. If he is dirty, then all the rest in Umno-BN will also be tainted. Why should they be good when the boss is not? So we hope that Najib will take up Ku Li’s challenge and not bury his head in the sand especially when his children are now in the news with their business deals. Don’t let people say that now the general election is over, he and Umno have gone back to their bad ways and it is business as usual, free-for-all corruption in the country,” Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.

Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh or Ku Li had asked Najib to lead the way for all politicians, both past and present, to declare their assets, including those of trustees and nominees. Both men come from the Umno party, which has ruled Malaysia since 1957.

“Let’s be honest; the pilfering and wastage of natural resources is intolerable. It is time to face reality, the rakyat are fed up of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.”Ku Li was reported as saying at an economic roundtable organized by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies on Thursday.

“All ministers, including past prime ministers, must make a declaration of their assets along with those who have been named as trustees and nominees.”

Najib will bury his head in the sand?

However, Najib is unlikely to live up to the challenge and is bound to gloss over it with some excuse or other, said his critics, who also pointed at previous instances where Najib had deliberately swept the issue of declaring his assets under the carpet.

Ku Li warned that to keep putting off reform would only make it easier for the Opposition to gain the upper hand at the next general election, which must be held latest by 2018.

In the recently-concluded 13th general election, Najib’s Umno-BN coalition ceded a further 7 seats at the federal Parliament to Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Rakyat. Umno-BN won only 133 out of the 222 seats that were up for grabs.

“There is nothing to prevent a change of government; there is massive unemployment involving fresh graduates and also high cost of living in the urban areas,” said Ku Li.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has warned the BN government that Pakatan Rakyat will not allow the re-delineation of constituencies to be debated in Parliament unless it is done with transparency and fairness.

“I’m warning the government and the Election Commission (EC), Pakatan will not allow this present corrupt, fraudulent EC to table the matter and debate on the delineation.

“I’m giving ample warning to the government and the EC. I have discussed with (Bersih 2.0 co-chairpersons) S Ambiga and Pak Samad Said. I said ‘look, we need to draw the line, like (US president Barrack) Obama’s red line, we will not allow this debate’.”

This warning was issued by Anwar in New York on Sunday when responding to questions during a dialogue with some 100 people, mostly Malaysians studying and working in the US.

“If they proceed (with the delineation), there would be problems. I can promise you, in Parliament and outside Parliament, we will make it a major issue, we will not concede,” he stressed.

The re-delineation exercise is expected to begin by end of this year. It would have huge repercussions on the result of the next general election.

The opposition coalition won 52 percent of the popular votes during the last general election in May but failed to capture federal power due to alleged gerrymandering.

However, the PKR de facto leader did not elaborate on the plan to block the re-delineation from being tabled in Parliament.

To convince the attendees that electoral fraud was prevalent in the last general polls, he quoted earlier statements by EC chief Abdul Aziz Yusof that there were 60,000 dubious voters in Sabah's electoral roll, and another 40,000 names in the national electoral roll which need to be verified. ‘He is now half Christian’

Wearing a pair of dark glasses due to an eye infection, Anwar also claimed that Pakatan only garnered 10 percent of the 700,000 early ballots cast five days before the polling day.

“You know what, because the votes were kept in police custody for five days, with ‘osmosis’ in the process. Nobody in their right mind, come on, would agree that 90 percent (of votes would go to BN). (Late Iraq dictator) Saddam Hussein only would get 90 over percent,” he said, drawing laughter from the floor.

Anwar claimed that the electoral irregularities had caught the attention of other countries, and he had been invited to Indonesia by the republic’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to explain the issue.

“He said he is shocked because in Indonesia, in 1998 was reformasi, in 1999 they had free and fair election,” he said.

During the question-and-answer session, an attendee asked Anwar to state his stand on conversion out of Islam.

Reminding that the contentious issue might give chance for pro-BN media to demonise him, Anwar stressed that he did not encourage apostasy but there should be no compulsion in Islam.

“Now I’m going to see Pope Francis (in Rome next week)… I think TV3 will say ‘look, Anwar is gone. He is now half Christian’,” he said in jest.

Anwar’s three-day trip to the US coincided with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s working trip to the nation.

Malaysian consulate-general in New York had invited Malaysian students to a dinner with Najib on the coming Sunday.